The big news of the day is that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is the first to be indicted in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

And when I say it’s big – it’s BIG!

The list of charges include: 12 counts: conspiracy against the U.S.,  conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

So, money laundering, and not a lot to do with his time as campaign chairman.

Also named in the indictment is his former business partner, Richard Gates.

Then there’s this:

Manafort accused of laundering $18 MILLION into the US that he hid from authorities, says more than $75M flowed thru offshore accounts pic.twitter.com/aww8S2DHMF

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 30, 2017

Wow.

So how does this tie into what he did with Trump? Why is it a big deal, related to the overall Russia probe?

Some are suggesting this is to squeeze Manafort, in order to get him to talk, and that’s also very likely.

This is all big, but he may not be the biggest fish.

Stay tuned.